We just planted some grape tomatoes. Do you think it's too late? They were blooming.
Waiting for the tomatoes in the Tundra,
Sarah
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Exhaustido!
Well, after one week of getting myself into a nice, neat routine of going to bed at a decent hour, waking up early, getting ready for work, having time for breakfast, actually feeding Tonto before I left AND getting to work on time - Sam's home! And all that flies out the window!!
Well, it did start with getting up early on Saturday morning to receive a brand-spanking new dryer from my parents and aunt and uncle!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now, my clothes will not only dry in record time, but it's so quiet, we can actually watch a movie in the other room while the dryer is running. Now, granted, I haven't really had time to use it yet, but I've tried it out - and it's beautiful - if a dryer can be beautiful!
Then we had a surprise visit by some of Sam's cousins, which was tons of fun! We whipped up a little brunch and got to visit with them for an hour or so!
After that, we ran to get rid of all the canoes back to their owners from the Boundary Waters trip and then out to the Colemans since Sadie, Nathan and Ethan were in for a visit. Didn't leave till close to midnight, so it late night #1 for me! And then up on Sunday morning for church - and out to the Colemans for a ride on their new-to-them boat! That was fun - and such a beautiful day! Then we were out to Volleyball - which was a forfeit from the other team and so we won by default, but we still played 6 or so games - it was fun! I only played three - no worries about me! I know when not to over-do it! ;) Then back out the Coleman's to visit with Sadie and Nathan and home again, home again jiggity jog - around midnight! Up this morning and back to the routine things of life!
Sam and I did figure out that our next free weekend is right after Memorial Day. Ugh - sounds overwhelming, but the Lord will help us get through it. We just have to remember to focus on what's ahead of us! For now - Sam has an art booth at the Art in the Park this weekend for the 4th of July - please pray for us about that - it's been a busy year and we don't have much to put up right now - at the same time, we'll probably have the Youth Group serving up Ice Cream at another booth! It'll all work out - it always does but the big picture is definitely too overwhelming for me! Focus on the task at hand - that's my motto! The rest will fall into place.
So that's about all that's going on right now - today has got to be one of the most beautiful days in all the world! So all that busy-ness going on over the weekend - I've got to say, I LOVE having Sam home! It's amazing how much he adds to my life - he makes me so very happy! So thank you to the man of my dreams, making them all come true! Thank you for being such an amazing husband for me!!!
So content in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Well, it did start with getting up early on Saturday morning to receive a brand-spanking new dryer from my parents and aunt and uncle!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now, my clothes will not only dry in record time, but it's so quiet, we can actually watch a movie in the other room while the dryer is running. Now, granted, I haven't really had time to use it yet, but I've tried it out - and it's beautiful - if a dryer can be beautiful!
Then we had a surprise visit by some of Sam's cousins, which was tons of fun! We whipped up a little brunch and got to visit with them for an hour or so!
After that, we ran to get rid of all the canoes back to their owners from the Boundary Waters trip and then out to the Colemans since Sadie, Nathan and Ethan were in for a visit. Didn't leave till close to midnight, so it late night #1 for me! And then up on Sunday morning for church - and out to the Colemans for a ride on their new-to-them boat! That was fun - and such a beautiful day! Then we were out to Volleyball - which was a forfeit from the other team and so we won by default, but we still played 6 or so games - it was fun! I only played three - no worries about me! I know when not to over-do it! ;) Then back out the Coleman's to visit with Sadie and Nathan and home again, home again jiggity jog - around midnight! Up this morning and back to the routine things of life!
Sam and I did figure out that our next free weekend is right after Memorial Day. Ugh - sounds overwhelming, but the Lord will help us get through it. We just have to remember to focus on what's ahead of us! For now - Sam has an art booth at the Art in the Park this weekend for the 4th of July - please pray for us about that - it's been a busy year and we don't have much to put up right now - at the same time, we'll probably have the Youth Group serving up Ice Cream at another booth! It'll all work out - it always does but the big picture is definitely too overwhelming for me! Focus on the task at hand - that's my motto! The rest will fall into place.
So that's about all that's going on right now - today has got to be one of the most beautiful days in all the world! So all that busy-ness going on over the weekend - I've got to say, I LOVE having Sam home! It's amazing how much he adds to my life - he makes me so very happy! So thank you to the man of my dreams, making them all come true! Thank you for being such an amazing husband for me!!!
So content in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Friday, June 26, 2009
Excitement reigns in the hearts of all - well, at least me!!!
That's right - my main squeeze is coming home today after a week in the Boundary Waters!!!! That's right, without me. But don't worry, that was my choice - it was either stay and save the health of my unborn baby, or go and get eaten up with mosquitoes and whatever else kind of bugs they had, sleep on the ground, carry heavy packs and canoes and never shower for a week straight. I think I made the right decision!!! But I sure did miss him! I always miss him. I didn't get as much done as I wanted. It was more behind the scenes kinds of stuff I got done, like read three and a half books...go through my clothes for the rummage sale...laundry (but guess what, there's more!) And I did leave two guys at my house this morning to finish caulking up the shower, actually to start AND finish caulking up the shower!!! That's a nice project to have out of the way. But don't worry, I did water the plants - the day it rained. But that's beside the point. I got to hang out with some really great people! I ate a big breakfast everyday. Then a not so big lunch and I can't even remember what I had for dinner all week, but I'm happy. Tonto is really happy. He got to sleep inside for 6 nights. He's not going to be very excited tonight. The first night, he was really confused, like he wasn't suppose to be in the house, but it didn't take him long to get used to it.
Anyway, as a treat to the greatest husband on the planet, I'm making dinner tonight. And I make no promises for any days past today! :) I'm just so excited to see him, I just don't know what to do with myself. 6 more hours.... Whew, I get so excited just thinking about it!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can't hardly stand it in the Tundra!
Love, Sarah
Anyway, as a treat to the greatest husband on the planet, I'm making dinner tonight. And I make no promises for any days past today! :) I'm just so excited to see him, I just don't know what to do with myself. 6 more hours.... Whew, I get so excited just thinking about it!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can't hardly stand it in the Tundra!
Love, Sarah
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Thought I'd enlighten you with more pictures....
You did it - you asked for it! Here is a picture of the... MANVAN!
Oh, and don't forget the Anti-theft system!
And so the other cars don't feel left out, here's my van...this beast took us 4,500 miles in one week!!!!
And the new kid on the block - we've yet to see what it can do! But for right now, we are more than content in the fact that it gets us around town safely and quickly! :)
But wait - who is this???
Oh, it's only Erik trying to get away from my stealth picture taking skills!!! Ha, I gotcha....twice!!!! HA!!!
Man, I'm good! Anyway, what else....
Well, as Erik would say - it's been kind of a fluff week for me. Not too much exciting stuff going on - I did get mutilated by some amazing Blongo Ball players last night. It's not really a memory I'd like to relive or even talk about, so please, stop bringing it up!!! Sorry, Tiffany! But I did get to hang out with some of my favorite people in the world last night - and had such a great time!
I did make some strawberry rhubarb jam yesterday - we'll see how it turns out - It all sealed, and that's a good sign! But other than that, not too much else going on. I'll try to get a picture of me when Sam comes back, so just hang in there! Thanks!
Getting ready for the heat in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Oh, and don't forget the Anti-theft system!
And so the other cars don't feel left out, here's my van...this beast took us 4,500 miles in one week!!!!
And the new kid on the block - we've yet to see what it can do! But for right now, we are more than content in the fact that it gets us around town safely and quickly! :)
But wait - who is this???
Oh, it's only Erik trying to get away from my stealth picture taking skills!!! Ha, I gotcha....twice!!!! HA!!!
Man, I'm good! Anyway, what else....
Well, as Erik would say - it's been kind of a fluff week for me. Not too much exciting stuff going on - I did get mutilated by some amazing Blongo Ball players last night. It's not really a memory I'd like to relive or even talk about, so please, stop bringing it up!!! Sorry, Tiffany! But I did get to hang out with some of my favorite people in the world last night - and had such a great time!
I did make some strawberry rhubarb jam yesterday - we'll see how it turns out - It all sealed, and that's a good sign! But other than that, not too much else going on. I'll try to get a picture of me when Sam comes back, so just hang in there! Thanks!
Getting ready for the heat in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Quick Venting session....
Ok, I've made myself a list of things to do this week and then decided what I was going to do everyday. Yesterdays project was fixing the fence around the garden, which fell down last summer while Sam was away to Chicago. Yes, it's been that long and it still hasn't gotten fixed. BECAUSE - we had to put up new rails and new pickets, and paint all of them. Well, Sam got the new rails put back up a while ago, probably last year when he got back, so now it's just the pickets that need to be painted and reattached. So yesterday was the BIG day to get that fixed. I painted all the pickets and proceeded to go and measure the rest of the fence still standing to cut my new pickets to size and space them out as necessary and screw them in. Well, wouldn't you know that when I tried to measure the other fence, there was no normal measuring system available. Seriously, the first picket is like 48 inches. The next one was 46 inches plus a couple little lines, the next one was 39 on the little tiny red numbers over the inches - don't even know what method of measuring that was!!! And it was way worse from there. That was enough to get my panties in a wad - then I started measuring how far they were from each other - the first one - 9 and a half centimeters! The next one, well, it was just UNDER 9 centimeters!!! What the heck?!?! There is NO WAY that I was going to be able to finish that project, which completely throws me off of my weeks projects! So I had to learn to be flexible and just move on to my new project!
Today's project? - Strawberry Rhubarb Jam! It's my first canning experience and I'm a little intimidated, but I think it will work out well! I'm running out of time this week to get all my projects done. I'm kind of bummed about that, I've run into a few other dilemmas that are going to set me back.
Well, I'm collecting all kinds of wonderful things for the Nursery. Haven't even had a chance to get in there to do a single darn thing, but at least they are all coming together! :) I think I will feel a bit more settled once I get that room moved around a bit!
Some really great friends of ours, the Jensens, came over and brought a de-humidifier to help with our flooding problem. I haven't emptied out quite as much water as I would have liked to. Our house is turned upside down still. Seriously, it's a mess. And I've had two separate people in who have never been there before - just for them to look at our house that's completely a mess! Good thing I'm not proud! :)
PS. It's raining. Rain, rain, go away, come again next month or some other time!
So friends, I'll put an end to this madness today. I'm delirious with excitement, for what, I don't know - but why stop a beautiful thing?
Gobbling up Bridget's monster cookies in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Today's project? - Strawberry Rhubarb Jam! It's my first canning experience and I'm a little intimidated, but I think it will work out well! I'm running out of time this week to get all my projects done. I'm kind of bummed about that, I've run into a few other dilemmas that are going to set me back.
Well, I'm collecting all kinds of wonderful things for the Nursery. Haven't even had a chance to get in there to do a single darn thing, but at least they are all coming together! :) I think I will feel a bit more settled once I get that room moved around a bit!
Some really great friends of ours, the Jensens, came over and brought a de-humidifier to help with our flooding problem. I haven't emptied out quite as much water as I would have liked to. Our house is turned upside down still. Seriously, it's a mess. And I've had two separate people in who have never been there before - just for them to look at our house that's completely a mess! Good thing I'm not proud! :)
PS. It's raining. Rain, rain, go away, come again next month or some other time!
So friends, I'll put an end to this madness today. I'm delirious with excitement, for what, I don't know - but why stop a beautiful thing?
Gobbling up Bridget's monster cookies in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Here goes nothin'!!!!
Here is just an overview of our yard - It's coming out quite nicely due to all the rain!
Another view!
Here is our chicken mailbox. It's looking quite nice as the hydrangeas are actually coming back at the base of it and the rose is taking off really nicely! The morning glories got a late start this year, so they aren't over-taking all of it...yet, which is nice, in my opinion. If you'd like a different opinion, check with Sam. Here's the thing about our chicken mailbox. It's purpose is to hold our gardening shears and gloves for quick weeding and planting around the yard. Our normal mailbox is hooked onto the back of the house, but when we have substitute mail people, sometimes finding our mail is kind of like a scavenger hunt!
Looky here - another rose is blooming!!!
Here is a bakers rack we got from the Gerlachs. We painted it green and turned it into a potting bench and I really like it!
Tonto's unfinished kennel - but we will finish it - I think that it adds so much, it kind of ties the house and the garage together a little better! I was a little worried that the lattice would be too close and T wouldn't be able to see out, but I think he'll be fine. In fact.....
Look how much he likes it! We still have to put a gate on it and finish up some detail work along the back and side, but it's coming along!
Ahhh....the infamous pond - from all angles!
And because of the pond, here is how far my raised bed got this year!
#1
and #2 didn't even get that far!
I guess I have some weeding to do! You probably can't tell, but those are strawberries, the biggest and best crop yet - after three years! So these are the only fruits we get this year, although I did plant some tomatoes in another spot and some herbs around the pond!
Are you sick of photo's yet?
Let's see what other treasures I have since I commandeered Sam's camera - Ahhh - the rattler Sam was poking with his finger the other day!
And a picture of the beautiful badlands while they are still green!
And finally... a picture of the Charlo Marlo kid as he took me on a date to the video store last night!
You can tell we had a great time!!!
Well, folks, that's all for now - isn't it enough?? That should make up for the last few months of me and all my talk of our yard projects. I do have a couple more photos coming this week, but will be Thursday at the earliest! Isn't it fun getting pictures WITH my great commentary? If you like this and want more of it - bombard Sam's inbox with messages telling him how nice it would be for Sarah to have a camera of her very own! scoleman@btinet.net - I dare you!!! :)
Keeping it real in the Tundra,
Sarah
Another view!
Here is our chicken mailbox. It's looking quite nice as the hydrangeas are actually coming back at the base of it and the rose is taking off really nicely! The morning glories got a late start this year, so they aren't over-taking all of it...yet, which is nice, in my opinion. If you'd like a different opinion, check with Sam. Here's the thing about our chicken mailbox. It's purpose is to hold our gardening shears and gloves for quick weeding and planting around the yard. Our normal mailbox is hooked onto the back of the house, but when we have substitute mail people, sometimes finding our mail is kind of like a scavenger hunt!
Looky here - another rose is blooming!!!
Here is a bakers rack we got from the Gerlachs. We painted it green and turned it into a potting bench and I really like it!
Tonto's unfinished kennel - but we will finish it - I think that it adds so much, it kind of ties the house and the garage together a little better! I was a little worried that the lattice would be too close and T wouldn't be able to see out, but I think he'll be fine. In fact.....
Look how much he likes it! We still have to put a gate on it and finish up some detail work along the back and side, but it's coming along!
Ahhh....the infamous pond - from all angles!
And because of the pond, here is how far my raised bed got this year!
#1
and #2 didn't even get that far!
I guess I have some weeding to do! You probably can't tell, but those are strawberries, the biggest and best crop yet - after three years! So these are the only fruits we get this year, although I did plant some tomatoes in another spot and some herbs around the pond!
Are you sick of photo's yet?
Let's see what other treasures I have since I commandeered Sam's camera - Ahhh - the rattler Sam was poking with his finger the other day!
And a picture of the beautiful badlands while they are still green!
And finally... a picture of the Charlo Marlo kid as he took me on a date to the video store last night!
You can tell we had a great time!!!
Well, folks, that's all for now - isn't it enough?? That should make up for the last few months of me and all my talk of our yard projects. I do have a couple more photos coming this week, but will be Thursday at the earliest! Isn't it fun getting pictures WITH my great commentary? If you like this and want more of it - bombard Sam's inbox with messages telling him how nice it would be for Sarah to have a camera of her very own! scoleman@btinet.net - I dare you!!! :)
Keeping it real in the Tundra,
Sarah
Monday, June 22, 2009
Good Monday Morning!
Well, hopefully this will be the week of photo's! I've already started taking some, so beware - photo's to post later this week!!!!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Praise the Lord!
It's windy! I never thought I'd hear myself say that! Hopefully the landy landy will get all dried up and we'll have no more seepage and that will give us time to decide what to do with our old-lady smelling house! It's gross - smells all musty and gross! But anyway, there has to be a silver lining, right??? I don't know where it is, but I'm sure I'll find it - Have the best weekend ever!
Enjoying the wind in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Enjoying the wind in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Not so much going on here....
The Lord held the rain off yesterday. It did rain a bit this morning and I'm just praying that the ground had a little time to dry out! Started on the massive mountain of laundry - still don't know the long term effects of wet floor - but you can keep praying!
I think the stress is getting to him.... Sambo, that is... Lots of you know that he has some pretty crazy and intense dreams. But usually they are after a big event, so I didn't even see this one coming. Also, on a side note - he did stub his toe while hauling out bucket loads of water, and it may be infected now - yuck! So anyway, back to my original story... We've had a pretty busy couple of days and I haven't gotten much sleep and last night I must have been in a VERY deep sleep, or so I thought. I did wake up to Sam laying in bed saying, He couldn't go to the Boundary Waters and no one was going to be able to go. I thought he was just dreaming again. But he wasn't slurring at all and talking normal. Then he says his toe is killing him and he's been throwing up and having diarrhea all night. That really woke me up! Then I noticed he'd put a shirt on - I mentioned that, and he said, Yeah, just in case someone stops by. I said, Someone might stop by in the middle of the night? He said, Yeah, I think I was dreaming that. But when he had mentioned getting sick, I checked his forehead and I was still a little out of it - I thought he had a fever, but he was just sweating... no fever. I said maybe you are dreaming. He said, No I'm not. I said, Well, it is weird because you are talking normal and he said that he's talking normal because he's awake like normal. So I started getting worried - there is no way he can take a bunch of kids on a trip when he was sick - then I prayed for him... I woke up off and on all through the night to check on him and every once in a while, he would actually get up out of bed and I would worry a little more... When I woke up this morning, I asked if he was feeling better and he said yes, but his toe still hurt.... And then right before I head off to work this morning, I said I just can't believe you were up all through the night and I didn't even know it! Then he tells me he thinks that was all a dream - he never did throw up or have diarrhea! Can you believe that?? And here I was loosing much needed sleep and praying over Sam's health issues, meanwhile, he doesn't even have a clue as he's sleeping there sound as a baby! Anyway, what is a girl to do?
Just thought I'd throw that out there and let you know that Sam is still up to his sleeping shenanigans!!! Have a great day!
Loosing sleep in the Tundra,
Sarah
I think the stress is getting to him.... Sambo, that is... Lots of you know that he has some pretty crazy and intense dreams. But usually they are after a big event, so I didn't even see this one coming. Also, on a side note - he did stub his toe while hauling out bucket loads of water, and it may be infected now - yuck! So anyway, back to my original story... We've had a pretty busy couple of days and I haven't gotten much sleep and last night I must have been in a VERY deep sleep, or so I thought. I did wake up to Sam laying in bed saying, He couldn't go to the Boundary Waters and no one was going to be able to go. I thought he was just dreaming again. But he wasn't slurring at all and talking normal. Then he says his toe is killing him and he's been throwing up and having diarrhea all night. That really woke me up! Then I noticed he'd put a shirt on - I mentioned that, and he said, Yeah, just in case someone stops by. I said, Someone might stop by in the middle of the night? He said, Yeah, I think I was dreaming that. But when he had mentioned getting sick, I checked his forehead and I was still a little out of it - I thought he had a fever, but he was just sweating... no fever. I said maybe you are dreaming. He said, No I'm not. I said, Well, it is weird because you are talking normal and he said that he's talking normal because he's awake like normal. So I started getting worried - there is no way he can take a bunch of kids on a trip when he was sick - then I prayed for him... I woke up off and on all through the night to check on him and every once in a while, he would actually get up out of bed and I would worry a little more... When I woke up this morning, I asked if he was feeling better and he said yes, but his toe still hurt.... And then right before I head off to work this morning, I said I just can't believe you were up all through the night and I didn't even know it! Then he tells me he thinks that was all a dream - he never did throw up or have diarrhea! Can you believe that?? And here I was loosing much needed sleep and praying over Sam's health issues, meanwhile, he doesn't even have a clue as he's sleeping there sound as a baby! Anyway, what is a girl to do?
Just thought I'd throw that out there and let you know that Sam is still up to his sleeping shenanigans!!! Have a great day!
Loosing sleep in the Tundra,
Sarah
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Blessings....and cursings.....
Good Morning folks. My apologies for all those who stopped by yesterday only to be completely disappointed not to find my oh-so-intelligent musings! Let me tell you about my day yesterday. Actually I have some REALLY great news and some REALLY not-so-great news! So I'll share the REALLY not-so-great news first so that we can end on a good note!
Tuesday night we had torrential rain. I mean, non-stop down pour for like 12 hours! It was insane! Thunder, lightening, the whole nine yards. It was wonderful to fall asleep to. And then the morning came. Our next door neighbor called Sam's phone at 8am to tell him that she had ankle deep water in her basement - That's just awful. I was glad that I went to check if we had leakage before we went to bed. Nope. Anyway, Sam was on his way out the door to hang out with a friend and pick up said blessing that we will discuss later. And I was ready for work and ran downstairs just to make sure we didn't have any water. Well, I guess Sam had the same thought, because when I got down there, I saw some water and some towels thrown on the floor. And then I looked in Sam's art supply room where there were frames, sitting in water! Oh goodness. So I tried cleaning it up as best I could, collecting towels from all over the house and then I noticed that water from UNDER OUR LAMINATE flooring was pouring out as I stepped across the floor. Oh man. I couldn't really sop it up fast enough. So then I called work. Gonna be late. From there, the events of the day just kind of meld into a pretty much hysterical mess. All I could think of was the $500 laminate we just put down LAST SUMMER - submerged in water! I called Sam. He wasn't going to be home for a while. What do I do??? Well, here's the answer to that question - when there is nothing else to do and your whole house is falling apart - break down in heart wrenching, body wracking sobs! It really makes the world a lot nicer place to live. All you girls - do you agree or what? Think about all the terrible things that have been piling up on you and just let it all out - and especially when you get the wet vac and are sucking up water as fast as you can and you are just about deaf from the noise of it - cry louder! That way that neighbors don't even have to listen to you! I don't know what was pouring out faster, water from under the floor, or water from my eyes! Again, just to reiterate, it was not a pretty sight! I suppose pregnancy hormones don't really help the situation. But anyway, my man finally got home around noon and told me it's all going to be alright. Everything will be alright. Phew. Take a deep breath. He said it, it must be so. Why is everything a thousand times better when your man comes home and hugs you and tells you everything is going to be alright? Why can't I tell myself that - and believe it? Well, I was exhausted. I'd been through quite a bit that morning already. Sambo told me to go and lay down, I probably need a nap. Thank you. Thank you for telling me it will be alright. Thank you for making me lay down and take a nap. Thank you for taking over the sucking of the gallons of water "seeping" into our house. Thank you for loving me despite my exaggerating drama-ness. Thank you for keeping me calm and loving me despite all of it! Now, everyone - go home and thank your man for being the provider and leader and lover of your life!!! Yeah! Now, where was I? Oh yeah, nap, then I got up and we ran a couple of errands in town and came back to even more water in our living room. Ugh.... We figured out a system though. Suck up water, empty into large plastic trashcan at the top of the stairs, which is being siphoned out by water hose into the yard, and pick up sopping towels, take to the washing machine for a run through the spin cycle, replace with newly spun towels, wait 30 minutes and repeat. Simple enough. But at 2am when my man is still sucking up water - well, what can I say? You just got to love that man!!! On a side note, I was praying like crazy that the water would just stop - that the torrential rains would stop and that God would dry up all the landy landy! This morning, I wasn't quite sure what I would find when I went down there, but God is faithful to take care of us. There was water, but it hadn't "grown" quite as much as it could have! Now, I want the wind to come to dry out the land. We don't usually have this problem, but 6 inches of rain in 12 hours is enough to do it to ya! I guess there is this town south west of us who got 12 inches of rain in 4 hours! Can you imagine? So if you would - you are all such amazing pray-ers - hence our volleyball win - now I'm asking for prayers for a dry house! Thank you. I don't know what our long term problems are going to be - mold - warped floors, completely taking up all our laminate and introducing our little one to what it's like to live in a third world country even though they are in America! Whatever! The one thing I know and Sam knows and what I want our little guy to know - beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that we may not have the nicest things in this world - but GOD DOES TAKE CARE OF US BEYOND OUR WILDEST IMAGINATION AND DEFINITELY BEYOND WHAT WE DESERVE! Amen and Amen!
Enough about all that drama - do you want to see how God takes care of us in a practical way? Well, while sometimes it seems like the world is falling down on us all at once, we have to look with purpose for ways to see God working in and around us, cause guess what? He is! Many of you know that our vehicles are not necessarily the nicest in the world and sometimes give us a little problem now and then - our $300 MANVAN has it's own anti-theft system in the sliding door since the door handle has been missing for the last year and a half and you have to open the passenger door to reach back in order to open that door. We think it's pretty clever. It's a 1996 Ford Windstar - the weirdest color green in the world. But it's been good to us. Very good. It's hauled stuff, kids, fishing stuff, kids, camping stuff, kids, art stuff, kids, hunting stuff, kids, taken us across the country to VA and back, up to the UP of Michigan and back. We camped in it. We've off roaded in it. We've on roaded in it. It's hauled family, it's hauled much more than it's allowable amount of people in it at once - the back seat belt got chewed off by one hungry puppy a few years ago on a trip up to NW ND. Oh the memories.... Most kids think it is pretty embarrassing except for the fact that we are very proud of our MANVAN and tell them about how God provides - and now they all have a healthy respect for it. It's been a teaching tool. God has used this car. There are a couple little annoying quirks. Ok, maybe more than a couple - the speedometer doesn't work. Well, it kind of does. But for the most part, it just waivers back and forth. So we make it work. We take the average and assume that's how fast we are going. For a while, we could start it without the key! That was always fun - and I hope after all this description, NO ONE is entertaining the fact that we were ever afraid someone would steal it! Anyway, lately it developed this annoying little habit of beeping incessantly every time you go below 15 mph! So needless to say, we've had some really interesting rides in the MANVAN when Sam is about up to here with the beeping. Can we say - HANG ON!!!!! For fear that this entry is getting entirely too long, let me finish my blessing story. Some good friends of ours, I haven't asked their permission if I can use their name, so I'll leave that out for now, but God provided people to help them purchase a new truck and they were so humbled by God working in their lives like that, they wanted to turn around and bless someone else! Well, after reading my blog entry, entitled Off Roadin', they decided that God was leading them to bless us with their extra car! So they just wanted to give us their car - their All wheel drive, Honda CRV that gets 22 miles to the gallon. And it was all paid off and the mechanic just said there were tons of years left in the life of that thing. They just wanted to GIVE it to us. Did you get that - GIVE it to us? For no reason at all, just because they were obedient to God who had already blessed them so much! I don't know about you - but I was flabbergasted - that is seriously one of the most humbling things that has ever happened to me. So now, we are the proud new owners of a Honda CRV that drives like a dream and we can totally rely on it! Thank you friends, and mostly thank you God! There are about a thousand lessons in this, but just remember to Look for the Lord working in and through you, because He is. And it's awesome!
Well, I should probably wrap this up - since I need to proof-read it still and get some other stuff done today!
Overwhelmed, in a good way, in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Tuesday night we had torrential rain. I mean, non-stop down pour for like 12 hours! It was insane! Thunder, lightening, the whole nine yards. It was wonderful to fall asleep to. And then the morning came. Our next door neighbor called Sam's phone at 8am to tell him that she had ankle deep water in her basement - That's just awful. I was glad that I went to check if we had leakage before we went to bed. Nope. Anyway, Sam was on his way out the door to hang out with a friend and pick up said blessing that we will discuss later. And I was ready for work and ran downstairs just to make sure we didn't have any water. Well, I guess Sam had the same thought, because when I got down there, I saw some water and some towels thrown on the floor. And then I looked in Sam's art supply room where there were frames, sitting in water! Oh goodness. So I tried cleaning it up as best I could, collecting towels from all over the house and then I noticed that water from UNDER OUR LAMINATE flooring was pouring out as I stepped across the floor. Oh man. I couldn't really sop it up fast enough. So then I called work. Gonna be late. From there, the events of the day just kind of meld into a pretty much hysterical mess. All I could think of was the $500 laminate we just put down LAST SUMMER - submerged in water! I called Sam. He wasn't going to be home for a while. What do I do??? Well, here's the answer to that question - when there is nothing else to do and your whole house is falling apart - break down in heart wrenching, body wracking sobs! It really makes the world a lot nicer place to live. All you girls - do you agree or what? Think about all the terrible things that have been piling up on you and just let it all out - and especially when you get the wet vac and are sucking up water as fast as you can and you are just about deaf from the noise of it - cry louder! That way that neighbors don't even have to listen to you! I don't know what was pouring out faster, water from under the floor, or water from my eyes! Again, just to reiterate, it was not a pretty sight! I suppose pregnancy hormones don't really help the situation. But anyway, my man finally got home around noon and told me it's all going to be alright. Everything will be alright. Phew. Take a deep breath. He said it, it must be so. Why is everything a thousand times better when your man comes home and hugs you and tells you everything is going to be alright? Why can't I tell myself that - and believe it? Well, I was exhausted. I'd been through quite a bit that morning already. Sambo told me to go and lay down, I probably need a nap. Thank you. Thank you for telling me it will be alright. Thank you for making me lay down and take a nap. Thank you for taking over the sucking of the gallons of water "seeping" into our house. Thank you for loving me despite my exaggerating drama-ness. Thank you for keeping me calm and loving me despite all of it! Now, everyone - go home and thank your man for being the provider and leader and lover of your life!!! Yeah! Now, where was I? Oh yeah, nap, then I got up and we ran a couple of errands in town and came back to even more water in our living room. Ugh.... We figured out a system though. Suck up water, empty into large plastic trashcan at the top of the stairs, which is being siphoned out by water hose into the yard, and pick up sopping towels, take to the washing machine for a run through the spin cycle, replace with newly spun towels, wait 30 minutes and repeat. Simple enough. But at 2am when my man is still sucking up water - well, what can I say? You just got to love that man!!! On a side note, I was praying like crazy that the water would just stop - that the torrential rains would stop and that God would dry up all the landy landy! This morning, I wasn't quite sure what I would find when I went down there, but God is faithful to take care of us. There was water, but it hadn't "grown" quite as much as it could have! Now, I want the wind to come to dry out the land. We don't usually have this problem, but 6 inches of rain in 12 hours is enough to do it to ya! I guess there is this town south west of us who got 12 inches of rain in 4 hours! Can you imagine? So if you would - you are all such amazing pray-ers - hence our volleyball win - now I'm asking for prayers for a dry house! Thank you. I don't know what our long term problems are going to be - mold - warped floors, completely taking up all our laminate and introducing our little one to what it's like to live in a third world country even though they are in America! Whatever! The one thing I know and Sam knows and what I want our little guy to know - beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that we may not have the nicest things in this world - but GOD DOES TAKE CARE OF US BEYOND OUR WILDEST IMAGINATION AND DEFINITELY BEYOND WHAT WE DESERVE! Amen and Amen!
Enough about all that drama - do you want to see how God takes care of us in a practical way? Well, while sometimes it seems like the world is falling down on us all at once, we have to look with purpose for ways to see God working in and around us, cause guess what? He is! Many of you know that our vehicles are not necessarily the nicest in the world and sometimes give us a little problem now and then - our $300 MANVAN has it's own anti-theft system in the sliding door since the door handle has been missing for the last year and a half and you have to open the passenger door to reach back in order to open that door. We think it's pretty clever. It's a 1996 Ford Windstar - the weirdest color green in the world. But it's been good to us. Very good. It's hauled stuff, kids, fishing stuff, kids, camping stuff, kids, art stuff, kids, hunting stuff, kids, taken us across the country to VA and back, up to the UP of Michigan and back. We camped in it. We've off roaded in it. We've on roaded in it. It's hauled family, it's hauled much more than it's allowable amount of people in it at once - the back seat belt got chewed off by one hungry puppy a few years ago on a trip up to NW ND. Oh the memories.... Most kids think it is pretty embarrassing except for the fact that we are very proud of our MANVAN and tell them about how God provides - and now they all have a healthy respect for it. It's been a teaching tool. God has used this car. There are a couple little annoying quirks. Ok, maybe more than a couple - the speedometer doesn't work. Well, it kind of does. But for the most part, it just waivers back and forth. So we make it work. We take the average and assume that's how fast we are going. For a while, we could start it without the key! That was always fun - and I hope after all this description, NO ONE is entertaining the fact that we were ever afraid someone would steal it! Anyway, lately it developed this annoying little habit of beeping incessantly every time you go below 15 mph! So needless to say, we've had some really interesting rides in the MANVAN when Sam is about up to here with the beeping. Can we say - HANG ON!!!!! For fear that this entry is getting entirely too long, let me finish my blessing story. Some good friends of ours, I haven't asked their permission if I can use their name, so I'll leave that out for now, but God provided people to help them purchase a new truck and they were so humbled by God working in their lives like that, they wanted to turn around and bless someone else! Well, after reading my blog entry, entitled Off Roadin', they decided that God was leading them to bless us with their extra car! So they just wanted to give us their car - their All wheel drive, Honda CRV that gets 22 miles to the gallon. And it was all paid off and the mechanic just said there were tons of years left in the life of that thing. They just wanted to GIVE it to us. Did you get that - GIVE it to us? For no reason at all, just because they were obedient to God who had already blessed them so much! I don't know about you - but I was flabbergasted - that is seriously one of the most humbling things that has ever happened to me. So now, we are the proud new owners of a Honda CRV that drives like a dream and we can totally rely on it! Thank you friends, and mostly thank you God! There are about a thousand lessons in this, but just remember to Look for the Lord working in and through you, because He is. And it's awesome!
Well, I should probably wrap this up - since I need to proof-read it still and get some other stuff done today!
Overwhelmed, in a good way, in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Monday, June 15, 2009
Have to write quickly...
I see a warning (scheduled outage at 12:00 on Monday 6/15). Oh wait, I guess that's PDT. So maybe I have a little bit of time. So anyway.
Guess what we did this weekend? We thought about going to Medora. Isn't that fun? Seriously, on Friday, we packed up our car, we didn't really feel like driving out there, but then thought we should take advantage of the opportunity. So we packed our MANVAN full of camping gear/art supplies/pictures and whatever else! ;) (that was for you, Lori!) And we headed out....yard sale-ing! That's right. We decided we needed to run to town to do a couple things, so we would stop at some yard sales. Now it was too late. We'd just go tomorrow. So off we went to a bunch more yard sales. I got some good deals. Then we stopped for coffee. Now we were feeling so good, maybe, if we rushed, we could make it out to Medora by dark. Ok, let's go. But let's just go to one more rummage sale! In the meantime, Johnny, Sam's brother called to go fishing. So now we were having another dilemma, should we go? (It was more Sam's dilemma, just for the record.) So no, we should probably stay here and go tomorrow. Going, staying, going, staying...staying? We headed home to meet Johnny and decided to call our good friends, the Gerlachs, who we hadn't seen in forever and see if they wanted to come over for some dessert! Ok, so we're staying. But on the interstate home, Sam said, we could speed and still be out there in time! AHHHHH!!!! NO!!!!! We are not GOING, we are STAYING and going tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We did stay. Whew.
Johnny came over and we packed a quick picnic dinner and went to river, only for them not to really catch anything, just loose a couple lures. Then the Gerlach's came and met us and we headed home for Rootbeer Freezes and visits and cards! It was a very fun night - so much fun to catch up with them!!!
We got a good night's sleep and got up in the morning - got the whole yard/flowers fertilized, got more done on Tonto's kennel, got the tomatoes in, laundry done and dishes washed! What a productive morning! THEN we headed out to Medora! Dropped off a bunch of pictures and headed into the badlands! Sam headed off on a long walk in search of the perfect picture for his big commission. Meanwhile, I took a much needed nap! Sam and Tonto finally came back a couple hours later, not having found the perfect picture, but worn to the bone! Neither one of them could get enough water! It was getting later in the evening, so we headed into the Park and here began "Our Game." This is where we establish a point system for each animal seen. For example: Wild Horse - 1 pt, Deer - 1 pt, Mule Deer Buck - 2 pt, Buffalo - 3 pt, Elk - probably 5 pt, Herd (3 or more) - 3 pt, depending on what type of herd. Mountain lion, cougar - automatic win the game! Etc. Anyway, Sam ALWAYS wins. I take the back, I won once. And I was feeling it this time - I was going to win! We establish prizes before we even start the game and then we're off. And seriously, I had a good feeling about this one. But by the time the score was 9-22, (Sam's favor) I was trying to give myself points for enthusiasm and anything else I could think of! To no avail.... I gave up keeping score at 10-29 or something insane like that! Besides, the real point of the game is to enjoy the surroundings, see as much wildlife as possible and just enjoy the day, right? Whatever.
But along the way, Sam did find a Rattler (3 pts.) It was a small one - more deadly, so it maybe should have been worth more, especially when he was poking it...with his FINGER! But I figured I could minus those extra points for his stupidity. (He didn't need to extra points anyway, let's get serious!) He was so insistent on bringing it home - in the same car as us?!?!??!! Is he crazy? (Rhetorical question, I can't really handle the truth right now.) Anyway, after insisting that, NO, he could not bring it home to mount it or otherwise, he decided we should probably kill it. But kill it? That's a bit extreme, don't ya think... I know that the snake could actually kill something else and would be extremely harmful to both people and other animals, and it probably would have been the responsible thing to do, but he was just laying there until Sam started poking it and I just couldn't see killing it. So we jumped in the car to head off to our next adventure, wherever that may take us! And about 10 seconds after we pulled away from the snake, a park patrol met us on the road. He must have been some young buck. We were on a turn and maybe a little in the middle of the road just getting our bearings, and so we might have scared him a bit, but we definitely didn't deserve what came next. So we are going along, thinking, that's great that the Ranger is back there, because he'll probably see the snake and so maybe he would stop and kill it. Then we didn't have to worry. Mind you, we have been driving like the oldest Sunday drivers throughout the entire park because of our game and because we didn't have to be anywhere! So all of a sudden, out of no where, this Ranger pulls up behind us and follows us for about a minute and then on go the lights! Goodness gracious - what is this all about? Surely he didn't have time to kill the snake and come back to check to make sure we were ok?! So then he comes up and tells us that we were speeding and we needed to slow down because we nearly ran him off the road! WHAT?! Are you kidding me? How in the world? So Sam said he didn't think he was speeding and the Ranger said, Yes, you were. I had to drive 48 mph to catch up to you. Nevermind that the road wasn't big enough to do a U-turn, so he had to stop and do at least a 3 pt. turn just to get turned around, and I don't know about you, but the MANVAN does not do 60 in 2.5 seconds - it's pretty powerful, but let's get real! (Maybe 60 in about 3.5 minutes!) - anyway, he took Sam's license, registration and all the good stuff and just ended up giving Sam a warning - so moral to this story - Don't mess with the Young Ranger's at the edge of dark!
By the time dark rolled around at 10pm, we decided we could find somewhere to camp and pull out all of our crap, or just stay up another couple of hours and drive home and stay in our own bed - so home won out and we drove home!!! Slept in a little on Sunday and had a nap and went to V-ball. By the way - thanks to all you pray-ers! We won. But it was bittersweet to tell you the honest truth. It determined the the top 8 and lower 8 bracket, so one of us is in the top and the other in the bottom, so that means we won't get to play each other again. All because of the stupid rain last week! It's always so much fun to be able to play against each other! Well, we did have the 7:30 slot - so we got to play till about 10pm just for fun... Then out to McD's for ice cream! Fun night had by all!!!
Monday morning dawns not so bright and no so clear - but I'm ok with a little more rain - you should see our yard. I know that's more my fault than yours that you can't see it, but I promise I will work on getting some photo's up for you in the next couple of weeks!
Well, I know that Erik's time is precious and I don't want him to spend a full 15 minutes of reading, so I'll cut this short even though I'm really just getting started!!! :)
Resting up from a tiring but good weekend in the Tundra!!!
Sarah
Guess what we did this weekend? We thought about going to Medora. Isn't that fun? Seriously, on Friday, we packed up our car, we didn't really feel like driving out there, but then thought we should take advantage of the opportunity. So we packed our MANVAN full of camping gear/art supplies/pictures and whatever else! ;) (that was for you, Lori!) And we headed out....yard sale-ing! That's right. We decided we needed to run to town to do a couple things, so we would stop at some yard sales. Now it was too late. We'd just go tomorrow. So off we went to a bunch more yard sales. I got some good deals. Then we stopped for coffee. Now we were feeling so good, maybe, if we rushed, we could make it out to Medora by dark. Ok, let's go. But let's just go to one more rummage sale! In the meantime, Johnny, Sam's brother called to go fishing. So now we were having another dilemma, should we go? (It was more Sam's dilemma, just for the record.) So no, we should probably stay here and go tomorrow. Going, staying, going, staying...staying? We headed home to meet Johnny and decided to call our good friends, the Gerlachs, who we hadn't seen in forever and see if they wanted to come over for some dessert! Ok, so we're staying. But on the interstate home, Sam said, we could speed and still be out there in time! AHHHHH!!!! NO!!!!! We are not GOING, we are STAYING and going tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We did stay. Whew.
Johnny came over and we packed a quick picnic dinner and went to river, only for them not to really catch anything, just loose a couple lures. Then the Gerlach's came and met us and we headed home for Rootbeer Freezes and visits and cards! It was a very fun night - so much fun to catch up with them!!!
We got a good night's sleep and got up in the morning - got the whole yard/flowers fertilized, got more done on Tonto's kennel, got the tomatoes in, laundry done and dishes washed! What a productive morning! THEN we headed out to Medora! Dropped off a bunch of pictures and headed into the badlands! Sam headed off on a long walk in search of the perfect picture for his big commission. Meanwhile, I took a much needed nap! Sam and Tonto finally came back a couple hours later, not having found the perfect picture, but worn to the bone! Neither one of them could get enough water! It was getting later in the evening, so we headed into the Park and here began "Our Game." This is where we establish a point system for each animal seen. For example: Wild Horse - 1 pt, Deer - 1 pt, Mule Deer Buck - 2 pt, Buffalo - 3 pt, Elk - probably 5 pt, Herd (3 or more) - 3 pt, depending on what type of herd. Mountain lion, cougar - automatic win the game! Etc. Anyway, Sam ALWAYS wins. I take the back, I won once. And I was feeling it this time - I was going to win! We establish prizes before we even start the game and then we're off. And seriously, I had a good feeling about this one. But by the time the score was 9-22, (Sam's favor) I was trying to give myself points for enthusiasm and anything else I could think of! To no avail.... I gave up keeping score at 10-29 or something insane like that! Besides, the real point of the game is to enjoy the surroundings, see as much wildlife as possible and just enjoy the day, right? Whatever.
But along the way, Sam did find a Rattler (3 pts.) It was a small one - more deadly, so it maybe should have been worth more, especially when he was poking it...with his FINGER! But I figured I could minus those extra points for his stupidity. (He didn't need to extra points anyway, let's get serious!) He was so insistent on bringing it home - in the same car as us?!?!??!! Is he crazy? (Rhetorical question, I can't really handle the truth right now.) Anyway, after insisting that, NO, he could not bring it home to mount it or otherwise, he decided we should probably kill it. But kill it? That's a bit extreme, don't ya think... I know that the snake could actually kill something else and would be extremely harmful to both people and other animals, and it probably would have been the responsible thing to do, but he was just laying there until Sam started poking it and I just couldn't see killing it. So we jumped in the car to head off to our next adventure, wherever that may take us! And about 10 seconds after we pulled away from the snake, a park patrol met us on the road. He must have been some young buck. We were on a turn and maybe a little in the middle of the road just getting our bearings, and so we might have scared him a bit, but we definitely didn't deserve what came next. So we are going along, thinking, that's great that the Ranger is back there, because he'll probably see the snake and so maybe he would stop and kill it. Then we didn't have to worry. Mind you, we have been driving like the oldest Sunday drivers throughout the entire park because of our game and because we didn't have to be anywhere! So all of a sudden, out of no where, this Ranger pulls up behind us and follows us for about a minute and then on go the lights! Goodness gracious - what is this all about? Surely he didn't have time to kill the snake and come back to check to make sure we were ok?! So then he comes up and tells us that we were speeding and we needed to slow down because we nearly ran him off the road! WHAT?! Are you kidding me? How in the world? So Sam said he didn't think he was speeding and the Ranger said, Yes, you were. I had to drive 48 mph to catch up to you. Nevermind that the road wasn't big enough to do a U-turn, so he had to stop and do at least a 3 pt. turn just to get turned around, and I don't know about you, but the MANVAN does not do 60 in 2.5 seconds - it's pretty powerful, but let's get real! (Maybe 60 in about 3.5 minutes!) - anyway, he took Sam's license, registration and all the good stuff and just ended up giving Sam a warning - so moral to this story - Don't mess with the Young Ranger's at the edge of dark!
By the time dark rolled around at 10pm, we decided we could find somewhere to camp and pull out all of our crap, or just stay up another couple of hours and drive home and stay in our own bed - so home won out and we drove home!!! Slept in a little on Sunday and had a nap and went to V-ball. By the way - thanks to all you pray-ers! We won. But it was bittersweet to tell you the honest truth. It determined the the top 8 and lower 8 bracket, so one of us is in the top and the other in the bottom, so that means we won't get to play each other again. All because of the stupid rain last week! It's always so much fun to be able to play against each other! Well, we did have the 7:30 slot - so we got to play till about 10pm just for fun... Then out to McD's for ice cream! Fun night had by all!!!
Monday morning dawns not so bright and no so clear - but I'm ok with a little more rain - you should see our yard. I know that's more my fault than yours that you can't see it, but I promise I will work on getting some photo's up for you in the next couple of weeks!
Well, I know that Erik's time is precious and I don't want him to spend a full 15 minutes of reading, so I'll cut this short even though I'm really just getting started!!! :)
Resting up from a tiring but good weekend in the Tundra!!!
Sarah
Friday, June 12, 2009
Just to ease your minds....
after much agony and mind altering, though provoking deliberation - I've come to a conclusion. I just have to change some stuff. #1 - the bed has got to go. It's too big and just takes up too much space, so in it's place, we'll be looking for a fold out couch or daybed... #2 - Got to paint. I realized the tan just drains me - it's like the most boring of all colors - it's not even a color - it's just tan. So we've got a bunch of yellow left over from another project, we'll be painting it yellow and that way, we can incorporate whatever bright colors we want! Sam picks red for the accent color. So that's how that goes. I went to JoAnn's for some fabric inspiration and didn't find any for the crib skirt. But praise the Lord, He's provided a crib! We just have to go and pick it up! Another wonderful family from church has finished having kids and they are ready to get their crib out of their house! God is so good to us for providing so much! Without the bed in there, I'll have room to make a book/toy section, still have room for a rocking chair (which I have to recover) and a dresser! It's coming together quite a bit better than yesterday! But I still would appreciate your thoughts. I have a perfect space above my closet that I think I'll write a verse with maybe some bumble bees - whatever is bright and colorful - it's definitely jiving quite a bit better with me!
On another note - My mom just called and her surgery is scheduled for July 1st. I have a few prayer requests:
1. Peace
2. Wisdom
3. That they will still be able to go to Alaska in August.
4. Quick Recovery
5. And however else the Lord leads you to pray!
Thanks!
Other than that, still looking for opinions from all you experts out there - should I have bumper pads on the crib? I've read a couple different opinions on the subject. But I'm going to make them, so I need to figure out if I need to worry about it at all! :)
Enjoying the most perfect beautiful day in the Tundra,
Sarah
PS. Just for the record - I beat Paige, Tiffany, Bridget, Erik, Sam and Morgan at Ultimate Solitaire last night. Ok, so it's true that most of them had never played before, but I've got to take my moment. Thank you, thank you very much!
On another note - My mom just called and her surgery is scheduled for July 1st. I have a few prayer requests:
1. Peace
2. Wisdom
3. That they will still be able to go to Alaska in August.
4. Quick Recovery
5. And however else the Lord leads you to pray!
Thanks!
Other than that, still looking for opinions from all you experts out there - should I have bumper pads on the crib? I've read a couple different opinions on the subject. But I'm going to make them, so I need to figure out if I need to worry about it at all! :)
Enjoying the most perfect beautiful day in the Tundra,
Sarah
PS. Just for the record - I beat Paige, Tiffany, Bridget, Erik, Sam and Morgan at Ultimate Solitaire last night. Ok, so it's true that most of them had never played before, but I've got to take my moment. Thank you, thank you very much!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
HELP!
Ok folks - I really need your help on this one!
I'm trying to figure out our nursery. We already have a full size bed with a quilt on it in the room and are not planning on taking it out. (We need it for guests and I don't have anywhere to store a full size bed in the mean time.) I don't especially want to change to bedding set, but it's a little blah. It's got pinks, mauves, blues and probably oatmeal color is the back ground. So kind of blah. I wanted to work with it and do kind of an old fashioned prairie school theme. I was going to put up a large chalk board to put messages and scripture verses with colored chalk. But Sam thinks that is too blah. He thinks our baby needs some bright stimulating colors. I don't disagree, but I'm having kind of a difficult time figuring out what to do. I could turn the quilt backwards - the backside is the oatmeal background with dark blue outlined flowers. And then throw some red in there. Red is kind of the accent color all the way through our house. Here's another thing - the walls are kind of blah too - tan.
OK - bumper pads? Yes or no?
This sounds awful, I know, but I want to do minimal work as I think that once our baby gets old enough, we'll want to decorate however he wants to decorate, so I don't want to do elaborate stuff only to get painted over later on.
The most important things I want to include are scriptures for the walls. Beautiful art. Lots of access to books. And all the necessary parts.
Discombobulated in the Tundra!
Love, Sarah
I'm trying to figure out our nursery. We already have a full size bed with a quilt on it in the room and are not planning on taking it out. (We need it for guests and I don't have anywhere to store a full size bed in the mean time.) I don't especially want to change to bedding set, but it's a little blah. It's got pinks, mauves, blues and probably oatmeal color is the back ground. So kind of blah. I wanted to work with it and do kind of an old fashioned prairie school theme. I was going to put up a large chalk board to put messages and scripture verses with colored chalk. But Sam thinks that is too blah. He thinks our baby needs some bright stimulating colors. I don't disagree, but I'm having kind of a difficult time figuring out what to do. I could turn the quilt backwards - the backside is the oatmeal background with dark blue outlined flowers. And then throw some red in there. Red is kind of the accent color all the way through our house. Here's another thing - the walls are kind of blah too - tan.
OK - bumper pads? Yes or no?
This sounds awful, I know, but I want to do minimal work as I think that once our baby gets old enough, we'll want to decorate however he wants to decorate, so I don't want to do elaborate stuff only to get painted over later on.
The most important things I want to include are scriptures for the walls. Beautiful art. Lots of access to books. And all the necessary parts.
Discombobulated in the Tundra!
Love, Sarah
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Half-way through!
Well, nothing new and exciting as of yesterday, unless of course you count my 20 min. nap that turned into an hour and a half - I don't know about you, but I was pretty darn stoked about that! Then I made lentils for dinner - Beth's Lentils, to be exact. And I have to admit, I wasn't really feeling it once I got everything in the pot. But I did add some sausage to the recipe because my man says if you don't eat meat for a meal, it's like a snack, not a real meal! (I feel the same way about sleeping anywhere other than my own bed - that's kind of like a nap, not a real sleep!) But I digress. Anyway, I whipped up some biscuits to go with the Lentils, which always makes my man happy! He could probably live off of biscuits, if I let him. So I thought just in case he wasn't real keen on the lentils, at least I'd have a fall back! So I served him dinner and surprise beyond surprise - the Lentils were fabulous! Definitely the highlight! He even liked them better than my biscuits and just between you and me - those were some pretty amazing biscuits!!! So here you go -
Beth's Lentils
2 TB olive oil
2 large onions, diced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
3 cups veg broth or water (I used Chicken Broth - all I had)
1 cup lentils, rinsed
salt to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I used dry)
2 14 oz cans stewed tomatoes
Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion and carrot for 3-5 minutes, then add herbs and saute 1 minute more.
Add all the other ingredients, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until lentils are tender, about 50 minutes.
Plus, like I said, I threw in a lb. of cooked Bulk Pork Sausage, I'm sure between my chicken broth and sausage, I totally ruined all health benefits, but it sure was tasty!
Other than that, I did want to give you an update on my mom! Her MRI came back clear - that is to say, there was nothing new other than what they knew about - but they didn't check the lymphnodes, that test is yet to come. So she just needs to make plans to do the lumpectomy and radiation. She is really not excited about the radiation and looking to see if there are any alternatives to that, but what great news! Thank you so much for praying - if you can keep it up - we're not out of the woods yet!
Thanks tons!!!!
Grateful in the Tundra!
Sarah
Beth's Lentils
2 TB olive oil
2 large onions, diced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
3 cups veg broth or water (I used Chicken Broth - all I had)
1 cup lentils, rinsed
salt to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I used dry)
2 14 oz cans stewed tomatoes
Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion and carrot for 3-5 minutes, then add herbs and saute 1 minute more.
Add all the other ingredients, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until lentils are tender, about 50 minutes.
Plus, like I said, I threw in a lb. of cooked Bulk Pork Sausage, I'm sure between my chicken broth and sausage, I totally ruined all health benefits, but it sure was tasty!
Other than that, I did want to give you an update on my mom! Her MRI came back clear - that is to say, there was nothing new other than what they knew about - but they didn't check the lymphnodes, that test is yet to come. So she just needs to make plans to do the lumpectomy and radiation. She is really not excited about the radiation and looking to see if there are any alternatives to that, but what great news! Thank you so much for praying - if you can keep it up - we're not out of the woods yet!
Thanks tons!!!!
Grateful in the Tundra!
Sarah
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Low Key day....
Not too much to say today - had a pretty low key evening - My firecracker came back to VBS, but he wasn't very fire-crackery. He lost a game during game time and all of a sudden, he wouldn't talk and had a "headache". He was very sulky. Even though I'm not too sure about chasing kids all around, I REALLY don't like it when they are sulky!
Oh, I do remember one really funny story to share! We went to Bible Time first - that's the one that Sam teaches. And we were learning about the plagues that God brought down on Pharaoh. Well, Sam and Paula did kind of a Fear factor and Hot Potato. They had representatives of the plagues in brown bags and passed them around and when the music stopped you had to touch or eat whatever was in there. There were crickets and worms and cups for water that turned to blood. But the kids were so riled up, it was hard to tell them that the crickets stood for locusts, etc. For lice and flies, they had made up some rice and mixed raisins in with them that the kids had to eat! Well, after the first kid got Flies and Lice, Sam started being funny and saying Flied Lice! Well, he was just yelling "Flied Lice, Flied Lice" the whole time! Then we went to games and the pastor was leading that and he was going over the Plagues again. Asking for people to tell him what some of the plagues were - the kids started shouting out "Crickets!" And Randy was like - weeeelllll, there weren't crickets, but locusts and he goes on to explain locusts. Then a kid yells out - "Worms!" And Randy was like, weeeelllll, no there weren't any worms! And for the kicker, another kid yells out "Fried Rice!" And Randy just about died - he didn't know where that came from at all - he couldn't stop laughing - One of the plagues was NOT Fried Rice! One of our Seniors looks at me and we just started laughing - I hope Sam didn't get in trouble for not teaching these kids about the correct plagues! But at least everyone had a great time!!!
Anyway, that's about all!
Waiting for Summer to arrive in The Tundra!
Sarah
Oh, I do remember one really funny story to share! We went to Bible Time first - that's the one that Sam teaches. And we were learning about the plagues that God brought down on Pharaoh. Well, Sam and Paula did kind of a Fear factor and Hot Potato. They had representatives of the plagues in brown bags and passed them around and when the music stopped you had to touch or eat whatever was in there. There were crickets and worms and cups for water that turned to blood. But the kids were so riled up, it was hard to tell them that the crickets stood for locusts, etc. For lice and flies, they had made up some rice and mixed raisins in with them that the kids had to eat! Well, after the first kid got Flies and Lice, Sam started being funny and saying Flied Lice! Well, he was just yelling "Flied Lice, Flied Lice" the whole time! Then we went to games and the pastor was leading that and he was going over the Plagues again. Asking for people to tell him what some of the plagues were - the kids started shouting out "Crickets!" And Randy was like - weeeelllll, there weren't crickets, but locusts and he goes on to explain locusts. Then a kid yells out - "Worms!" And Randy was like, weeeelllll, no there weren't any worms! And for the kicker, another kid yells out "Fried Rice!" And Randy just about died - he didn't know where that came from at all - he couldn't stop laughing - One of the plagues was NOT Fried Rice! One of our Seniors looks at me and we just started laughing - I hope Sam didn't get in trouble for not teaching these kids about the correct plagues! But at least everyone had a great time!!!
Anyway, that's about all!
Waiting for Summer to arrive in The Tundra!
Sarah
Monday, June 8, 2009
Off Roadin'
Have you ever been to the mechanic with your MINIVAN where the mechanic says, "You know, this is NOT a 4 wheel drive vehicle? It's probably better if you don't off road with it." I'd venture a bet that there aren't that many people that can say they've had that experience! But thanks to my adventurous husband, I can add that to MY repertoire of adventures! And you would think that nice suggestions from the world's best mechanic would be enough to make one stop and think, but I don't think Sambo acknowledges nice suggestions - he acknowledges more like flat tires in the middle of the dessert of Arizona on the darkest of nights. Must be a first born thing. Anyway, it's cold here. And rainy. And we went for our normal Sunday drive. He used to ask me which direction we should go for our drive - North, South, or West. That was BEFORE the pond and the massive load of rocks we found. Now, we find ourselves heading south and coming back with a load of hand picked rocks. When I show you pictures of the pond, I want you to realize that EVERY SINGLE rock was hand picked, with love, by the love of my life! So picture this with me... it's been raining pretty regular for two days straight making roads pretty muddy and the thermometer is barely touching 40 degrees - now Sam usually gives me a hard time and says that I always exaggerate everything, but this is NOT one of those times! (On a side note, isn't life much more exciting when you exaggerate a bit? That's beside the point.) Anyway, we turn off on Sam's beloved "short cut" (yes, it's another one) and we are traveling along when all of a sudden, we are in 4-6 inches of mud and swerving all over the place! He's Woo-hooing and all over the place like a kid in a candy store, meanwhile I was white knuckled and "Dear Lord Jesus, help us get out of here without having to replace our engine!" I seriously thought we'd be high centered for about 1 second and then sink in the miry depths to the Earth's core! (Ok, maybe a little exaggeration!) But it was bad. I knew it was bad when he stopped woo-hooing and started praying too - Oh goodness, I knew it was bad. But what did the Love of my life do? He just sped up till the light at the end of the tunnel - PAVEMENT! Whew, we made it. But not without palpitations and most likely permanent damage, not sure where that's going to show up, but it most certainly will! I asked him if he was trying to kill me or just give me another good story for my blog, because I really don't mind being boring - especially when I see this price tag at the car repair shop just keep ticking away!
Well, we got to our beloved rock pile, by this time, the rain was REALLY coming down. For fear of giving away our location to much - let's just say we were along the river somewhere and there were people out fishing...IN THE RAIN! Talk about dedication (or maybe craziness)! Ok, fishermen in the rain, Sam collecting rocks in the rain and there I am, huddled up in the disasteratized MANVAN pondering really deep thoughts, when Sam says - "Look, isn't it crazy what people will do for their passion?" Wherein I pipe up - "Yeah, like move to North Dakota?!" For some reason he thought that was so funny! So the next thing is - Have you ever heard of a Red neck car wash? Yeah, me neither. But Sam thought he was just the most clever thing in all the world by driving our MANVAN almost INTO the river and proceed to splash River water all over it to get earlier said mud off! So that's my life in the Tundra - sitting in a $300 half broke down van down by the river while my incredibly handsome, although somewhat loopy husband splashes the mud off it, oh yeah, in the POURING rain! Aren't y'all jealous? ;)
Whew, enough adventure for one day. VBS started last night. I have 3 kids going into the 2nd grade and 2 going into the 1st grade. One of them is a firecracker! My voice had just started coming back before VBS last night. The one firecracker took it right back out of me! 4 more nights, I can do this! :) Anyway, I'm pretty sure his parents fed him about a case of Mt. Dew before he came last night. He did mention that Mt. Dew was his favorite. But the funniest thing that happened was that he was trying to tell us a joke a snack time - "Why did the cavemen move into the Cave?" No one had a clue - and then he says, "Because it was raining!" Ha hahahahahaha. Whatever. I didn't get it, but I laughed along because I was anxious for him to stop talking. But then I had this one girl look at him and said, "I don't get it." He said you don't get it? She said yeah, I just don't get it. And then he said, weeeeeeell, I said it like I believed it - like it's a fact. So I intervened and said - it was more like trivia - not so much a joke. So she said, Oh. And then about a minute later she looked at him and said - "Are you saying that the cavemen moved into the cave because it was raining?" And the Firecracker said YES! And she said - Oh, that's not funny. She had the most serious face on and I about died! Luckily it was time to move on to the next station! But oh, more to come. We have VBS every night this week till Thursday from 6-8:30pm!
Pray for us! I'm the Crew Leader for my small troop and Sam is in charge of the Bible Stories, which he does such a great job with! Last night he was the voice of God speaking to Moses from the Burning Bush. When he said, Do you know who I am - the kids started yelling out these answers - God! Sam! Santa! HA! It was funny!
Anyway, hoping it warms up in the Tundra - ps. Just so you know, our V-ball got canceled last night due to rain, so that's why we have no updates, but this coming week, we play our other Charity Team - so I'm going to stoop pretty low and ask for some prayers that we can beat them! :) hehehe - take that Erik!!!!
Love, Sarah
Well, we got to our beloved rock pile, by this time, the rain was REALLY coming down. For fear of giving away our location to much - let's just say we were along the river somewhere and there were people out fishing...IN THE RAIN! Talk about dedication (or maybe craziness)! Ok, fishermen in the rain, Sam collecting rocks in the rain and there I am, huddled up in the disasteratized MANVAN pondering really deep thoughts, when Sam says - "Look, isn't it crazy what people will do for their passion?" Wherein I pipe up - "Yeah, like move to North Dakota?!" For some reason he thought that was so funny! So the next thing is - Have you ever heard of a Red neck car wash? Yeah, me neither. But Sam thought he was just the most clever thing in all the world by driving our MANVAN almost INTO the river and proceed to splash River water all over it to get earlier said mud off! So that's my life in the Tundra - sitting in a $300 half broke down van down by the river while my incredibly handsome, although somewhat loopy husband splashes the mud off it, oh yeah, in the POURING rain! Aren't y'all jealous? ;)
Whew, enough adventure for one day. VBS started last night. I have 3 kids going into the 2nd grade and 2 going into the 1st grade. One of them is a firecracker! My voice had just started coming back before VBS last night. The one firecracker took it right back out of me! 4 more nights, I can do this! :) Anyway, I'm pretty sure his parents fed him about a case of Mt. Dew before he came last night. He did mention that Mt. Dew was his favorite. But the funniest thing that happened was that he was trying to tell us a joke a snack time - "Why did the cavemen move into the Cave?" No one had a clue - and then he says, "Because it was raining!" Ha hahahahahaha. Whatever. I didn't get it, but I laughed along because I was anxious for him to stop talking. But then I had this one girl look at him and said, "I don't get it." He said you don't get it? She said yeah, I just don't get it. And then he said, weeeeeeell, I said it like I believed it - like it's a fact. So I intervened and said - it was more like trivia - not so much a joke. So she said, Oh. And then about a minute later she looked at him and said - "Are you saying that the cavemen moved into the cave because it was raining?" And the Firecracker said YES! And she said - Oh, that's not funny. She had the most serious face on and I about died! Luckily it was time to move on to the next station! But oh, more to come. We have VBS every night this week till Thursday from 6-8:30pm!
Pray for us! I'm the Crew Leader for my small troop and Sam is in charge of the Bible Stories, which he does such a great job with! Last night he was the voice of God speaking to Moses from the Burning Bush. When he said, Do you know who I am - the kids started yelling out these answers - God! Sam! Santa! HA! It was funny!
Anyway, hoping it warms up in the Tundra - ps. Just so you know, our V-ball got canceled last night due to rain, so that's why we have no updates, but this coming week, we play our other Charity Team - so I'm going to stoop pretty low and ask for some prayers that we can beat them! :) hehehe - take that Erik!!!!
Love, Sarah
Friday, June 5, 2009
Update...
I guess you didn't have to wait as long as I thought. I called Sam to tell him about a rummage sale that had some stuff I thought he'd be interested in and when he answered the phone, there was loudness and hootin' and hollerin'!!!
I guess my man brought in a big one!!! 8 or 9 lbs! He was going to have to take pictures because the live well wouldn't be able to fit it! Woo hooo!!!!!
Go Sam!!!!
I guess my man brought in a big one!!! 8 or 9 lbs! He was going to have to take pictures because the live well wouldn't be able to fit it! Woo hooo!!!!!
Go Sam!!!!
Murphy's Law
Doesn't it say somewhere, maybe in Murphy's law, maybe not. But somewhere, doesn't it say that the minute you say wonderful and kind things about your dog, he'll run away that afternoon? For like a LONG time? Maybe it doesn't say that anywhere, but it's true. Seriously. That's the story of my life. I was a little hesitant to work on his kennel thinking that would jinx him into never coming home. But we figured we'd work on it anyway. Ok, this is what happened. Sam took me on a picnic yesterday and we brought the big T so he could run AROUND - not AWAY! Anyway, all of a sudden, we both look around and ask "What happened to Tonto?" Then we roll our eyes and start to get up and holler for him. It's a wonder the whole town of Mandan doesn't know Tonto, and US! So we drove all the way home to get Sam's phone in case someone called, and then came back and took a walk down the path yelling for him along the way, asking everyone if they had seen a yellow lab - No. None of them had seen him. The whole time, we are deciding which Vet to take him to in order to get neutered... Then we just gave up - and headed home. Here's another Murphy's Law, from somewhere. We decided to head into town to get a few supplies for working on his kennel and as soon as we are as far away from home as we could possibly get, there was a phone call - someone found Tonto - all the way back in Mandan. Now, honestly, there is a big relief that goes into a phone call like that, because no matter how mad you really are, you are always thinking he could be dead on the side of the road somewhere too.... So we rush back to their house to pick up the bad dog. Do you want to know how far he ran? Let me think - probably the equivalent to about 20 blocks! That's further than I had to go for jury duty! Some of you will remember that story - probably the top worst embarrassing moment of my life. Why I gave you a link to it, I'll never know, but I thought you might be able to handle a laugh or two today. After all, it is Friday!
So we worked on T's kennel till 11pm last night. It's looking really good. Man, I'll have to give Sambo some credit here. He's not what you would call the Construction Type, really. But he takes on these projects and deals with all the dilemmas that come along, just to make our yard more and more beautiful. Gotta love a man like that! I promise, I'll post pictures soon!
Now that we know we are having a little boy - who, by the way, woke up doing Riverdance this morning, it is so much easier to buy clothes at Rummage Sales! I went to one this morning because I was a little early leaving the house, and I could have stayed there all day. Anyway - it's fun when you can actually go to yard sales and be interested in the baby stuff....
Other than that, the Love of my life is out on the River this morning in search of the elusive fish - tune in some other day to find out if he actually caught one! :)
Enjoying a much cooler day in the Tundra (today's high's = maybe 60 - tomorrow's high = 40! Burrr!!!!)
Love, Sarah
So we worked on T's kennel till 11pm last night. It's looking really good. Man, I'll have to give Sambo some credit here. He's not what you would call the Construction Type, really. But he takes on these projects and deals with all the dilemmas that come along, just to make our yard more and more beautiful. Gotta love a man like that! I promise, I'll post pictures soon!
Now that we know we are having a little boy - who, by the way, woke up doing Riverdance this morning, it is so much easier to buy clothes at Rummage Sales! I went to one this morning because I was a little early leaving the house, and I could have stayed there all day. Anyway - it's fun when you can actually go to yard sales and be interested in the baby stuff....
Other than that, the Love of my life is out on the River this morning in search of the elusive fish - tune in some other day to find out if he actually caught one! :)
Enjoying a much cooler day in the Tundra (today's high's = maybe 60 - tomorrow's high = 40! Burrr!!!!)
Love, Sarah
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Random Musings.
Hello. I'm happy. But I didn't win the mixer on www.thepioneerwoman.com, AGAIN! That's kind of sad. She's got lots of great prizes and all you have to do is put a comment in her comment section. But you know how the lottery is like 1 in about a 100,000,000 winners - I think my chances with The Pioneer Woman are less! Oh well. And here I am linking you to her so that at least one more person can join the myriads of people competing against me. That's true sacrifice. I'd like to enter myself as Exhibit A for examples of true sacrifice. Anyway, besides the fact that I never win her give-aways, I love her blog! I was set on to it by my good friend, Aleycia. Look at me, I'm a serious linkage fool today! Anyway, she's got lots of great stories and recipes and photography! She's a real humdinger in my book! And that's saying a lot!
So what's new in the Tundra today, you might ask? Well, we are busy working on Tonto's kennel. His new and improved kennel! I don't know if you remember, or even if I told you that Tonto learned how to jump over his kennel after 3 and a half years of living in it. Ok, so he's a little slow. But I'm not holding that against him. He's so cute!
How can you resist that face, I mean, seriously? Ok, so he runs away. Fine, he rolls in dead stuff. I know it gets a little old when he tries to lick your face when his breath smells really bad. I know, picking up poop out of the yard isn't always fun. But come on - you have to love a face like that - when you wake up in the morning and he's just sitting there, staring in the window waiting for one of us to acknowledge him, when you drive into the driveway, and no matter how deep of a sleep he's in, he jumps right up and starts wagging his tail like he hasn't seen you in years. When you're mad at him, and he knows it, and tucks his tail between his legs and ducks his head as if to say I'm sorry. When you are sad or crying and he instinctively knows it - and he comes and tries to cuddle up in your lap to tell you that he still loves you. Just the thought of it brings tears to my eyes. How can you not love that? A lot of people don't like our dog. They think he's dumb. In general, these are the people who don't like dogs at all, but I love him. He's the greatest dog in the whole world! I don't care what people think of him, except for when they say bad things about him, secretly, I like the people a little less! Shhh....
Anyway, so enough about that. We are building Tonto a new and improved, sturdier, and prettier kennel. There is always a project going on at our house. And this is no different. Sam says the neighbors must think we are crazy - there are ALWAYS things laying around. Right now, we've got piles of sand, rock and camping equipment in the driveway. A little further to the left, we've got plastic bags of flowers, lumber and gardening equipment. Down the steps, we've got shovels, lumps of grass and random rocks. At the door, we've usually got a left over cooler, maybe a bag of trash and tons of empty planters, never mind the length of hoses cris-crossing our yard from one flower bed to another. There are always projects. But it's lived in. And I like it. It's a sanctuary. I love coming home. We live right in the middle of town, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like we are the only ones on the street. I love that. I love that you can drop the problems at the door and step into this sweet little sanctuary that God has given us and be entertained for hours by the birds and squirrels and flowers and Tonto and Sam. I'm mostly entertained by Sam, that's for sure. He can stare at our pond for hours on end. I suppose it's actually good that we don't live near the ocean. I'd never see him again!
Well, anyway, those are my musings for the day. Where is your sanctuary? What do you love about your house or yard? Do you love it?
Basking in the solitude of the Tundra!
Love, Sarah
So what's new in the Tundra today, you might ask? Well, we are busy working on Tonto's kennel. His new and improved kennel! I don't know if you remember, or even if I told you that Tonto learned how to jump over his kennel after 3 and a half years of living in it. Ok, so he's a little slow. But I'm not holding that against him. He's so cute!
How can you resist that face, I mean, seriously? Ok, so he runs away. Fine, he rolls in dead stuff. I know it gets a little old when he tries to lick your face when his breath smells really bad. I know, picking up poop out of the yard isn't always fun. But come on - you have to love a face like that - when you wake up in the morning and he's just sitting there, staring in the window waiting for one of us to acknowledge him, when you drive into the driveway, and no matter how deep of a sleep he's in, he jumps right up and starts wagging his tail like he hasn't seen you in years. When you're mad at him, and he knows it, and tucks his tail between his legs and ducks his head as if to say I'm sorry. When you are sad or crying and he instinctively knows it - and he comes and tries to cuddle up in your lap to tell you that he still loves you. Just the thought of it brings tears to my eyes. How can you not love that? A lot of people don't like our dog. They think he's dumb. In general, these are the people who don't like dogs at all, but I love him. He's the greatest dog in the whole world! I don't care what people think of him, except for when they say bad things about him, secretly, I like the people a little less! Shhh....
Anyway, so enough about that. We are building Tonto a new and improved, sturdier, and prettier kennel. There is always a project going on at our house. And this is no different. Sam says the neighbors must think we are crazy - there are ALWAYS things laying around. Right now, we've got piles of sand, rock and camping equipment in the driveway. A little further to the left, we've got plastic bags of flowers, lumber and gardening equipment. Down the steps, we've got shovels, lumps of grass and random rocks. At the door, we've usually got a left over cooler, maybe a bag of trash and tons of empty planters, never mind the length of hoses cris-crossing our yard from one flower bed to another. There are always projects. But it's lived in. And I like it. It's a sanctuary. I love coming home. We live right in the middle of town, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like we are the only ones on the street. I love that. I love that you can drop the problems at the door and step into this sweet little sanctuary that God has given us and be entertained for hours by the birds and squirrels and flowers and Tonto and Sam. I'm mostly entertained by Sam, that's for sure. He can stare at our pond for hours on end. I suppose it's actually good that we don't live near the ocean. I'd never see him again!
Well, anyway, those are my musings for the day. Where is your sanctuary? What do you love about your house or yard? Do you love it?
Basking in the solitude of the Tundra!
Love, Sarah
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Family, Friends and Fires....
Good Morning all! Just wanted to give you a quick update!
My mom visited with her Oncologist yesterday and basically she has an MRI and Genetic Testing on Friday. Depending on those results, we'll know better where we stand.
1. If there is no cancer, there will be a lumpectomy and 6 weeks of radiation to follow.
2. If there is cancer in the breast, not the lymphnodes, there will be a mastectomy with nothing but recovery to follow...
That's about all we know for now. It will take 2 weeks to get the Genetic Testing results back, so if there is no cancer, it will still take a couple weeks to get going, because depending on those results, Mom could be eligible for a partial radiation instead of full radiation to the breast... Which would be nice.
If you could continue to pray for -
1. The Lord's peace
2. My mom's decision
3. The Dr.s wisdom
That would be great!
Other than that - we had a bonfire/camp out at the River last night with a bunch of kids. The only bad thing is that #1 - there was a freeze warning for last night. But I don't think it froze. I'm sure they were just fine. And #2 - there was this gigantic dead deer laying by the water - and if you can imagine the worst smell in your life and multiply it by about 10x - you might have started to crack the case on just how bad this smelled! And the wind was in the wrong direction! So Sam and one other kid grabbed the deer by the feet to chuck it into the water - and while I'm on the subject, why is it that dogs feel the need to roll in dead stuff? Sometimes Tonto can find some pretty rank stuff, but this was OVER THE TOP! Anyway, I wish I could bottle up the smell and let you sniff it, because, I've never, in my whole entire life, smelled something so bad! Lucky them for getting to camp there over night. Not me brother! I was at home, had a nice warm shower, snuggled into my nice warm bed and slept like a baby! I haven't talked to Sam since 10:30 last night, so I have no idea how everything worked out, but I do know that it's a beautiful morning today - I'm sure they had fun!
Well, off to work I go, hi ho, hi ho!
It's a beautiful day in the Tundra!
Sarah
My mom visited with her Oncologist yesterday and basically she has an MRI and Genetic Testing on Friday. Depending on those results, we'll know better where we stand.
1. If there is no cancer, there will be a lumpectomy and 6 weeks of radiation to follow.
2. If there is cancer in the breast, not the lymphnodes, there will be a mastectomy with nothing but recovery to follow...
That's about all we know for now. It will take 2 weeks to get the Genetic Testing results back, so if there is no cancer, it will still take a couple weeks to get going, because depending on those results, Mom could be eligible for a partial radiation instead of full radiation to the breast... Which would be nice.
If you could continue to pray for -
1. The Lord's peace
2. My mom's decision
3. The Dr.s wisdom
That would be great!
Other than that - we had a bonfire/camp out at the River last night with a bunch of kids. The only bad thing is that #1 - there was a freeze warning for last night. But I don't think it froze. I'm sure they were just fine. And #2 - there was this gigantic dead deer laying by the water - and if you can imagine the worst smell in your life and multiply it by about 10x - you might have started to crack the case on just how bad this smelled! And the wind was in the wrong direction! So Sam and one other kid grabbed the deer by the feet to chuck it into the water - and while I'm on the subject, why is it that dogs feel the need to roll in dead stuff? Sometimes Tonto can find some pretty rank stuff, but this was OVER THE TOP! Anyway, I wish I could bottle up the smell and let you sniff it, because, I've never, in my whole entire life, smelled something so bad! Lucky them for getting to camp there over night. Not me brother! I was at home, had a nice warm shower, snuggled into my nice warm bed and slept like a baby! I haven't talked to Sam since 10:30 last night, so I have no idea how everything worked out, but I do know that it's a beautiful morning today - I'm sure they had fun!
Well, off to work I go, hi ho, hi ho!
It's a beautiful day in the Tundra!
Sarah
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Good Morning!
Well, I just wanted to let you know how my last week went!
First of all, we started out taking 30 kids up to Lake Metigoshe! It's always a fun trip because it's pretty relaxing. We take 6 canoes and we have a boat, we set up camp for our tents and food and just hang out. The kids are pretty excited to go fishing or canoeing, or just hang out! We make them take a shower on Wednesday and we take at least one trip into town for ice cream during the week! Does life seriously get any better than that????
The first day we got there was pretty cold and rainy. Well, drizzly. But we got everything set up. I was lamenting on the fact that I didn't bring more clothes! In fact, WHAT WAS I THINKING?! Oh yeah, I'm pregnant and can't fit into most of my clothes, that's right. Anyway, I survived. We brought an air mattress, I shared a tent with two other people that got settled onto the air mattress first because I wanted to be close to the door - I knew I'd have to make at least one trip out in the night, if you know what I mean! Well, by the time I got settled, I had a good 12 inches - which worked because I have to sleep on my side anyway, then my hip started throbbing and one of my bed mates started curling up as she slept, which gave me about 10 or less inches! So as I turned over, I fell off the edge of the mattress... Now I was stuck on the flat ground pinned between the door and an air mattress. And it was COLD - I mean, like Burrrrrr - cold!!!! So I thought to myself - "Self, what the heck are you doing here? Get up - the van has got to be more comfortable than this." So I was smart and listened to myself and got up and hiked up to the van to sleep the sleep of kings and queens on the last seat of a 15 passenger van...for the next 2 nights as well! It was like having a room to myself!
The weather kept getting warmer and warmer and so that made it really nice! Since we had such a large group, we had to divide them in half for our canoe trek into Canada. That was pretty nice, except paddling against the wind with 4th-6th graders definitely provides some challenge! It was really fun though - canoeing is definitely one my most favorite things in the world!
Well, we got back around 3pm on Thursday but by the time we got everything put away, including stuff and kids, we got home around 5pm. And like I said earlier, it was Judah's birthday! So Happy Birthday Judah! We had volleyball, pizza and friends to celebrate his big day! And that went to late. I was definitely wearing thin!
Oh, did I mention that I caught a head cold on the trip up to Metigoshe? I probably forgot that part! Still trying to get over it! So my energy was doubly low.
Then on Friday, we hung out with Katie and Mike who were in from Washington for the week and went rummage sale-ing. Then we went out on Mike's boat fishing/boating - it was a beautiful day! Then we needed to make it back in time for the boy's State Baseball Tourney Game #2 - not too much to say there, it was kind of a hard game and the boy's first loss of the season! That was really too bad! But then Judah and Charlie wanted to head out to the movie "Up" - the new Pixar movie - we are all pretty crazy about Pixar movies! Anyway, this was our only opportunity to see it with the boys for the next 2 weeks or so - we went and the theater was packed with all kinds of kids! In fact, we couldn't even find 4 seats together. So the boys went higher and Sam and I sat in the middle of some kids.
The continuation of this story makes it into the "Top 3 Most Embarrassing Moments" of my life. The sad thing is that 2 of them now happened in a movie theater! Anyway, did you catch the part where I was exhausted and moving like one more step was comparable to climbing Mt. Everest? Just in case you didn't catch that part, I just thought I'd make it a little clearer! Also, we needed to rush out of the movie theater because we were expecting weekend guests. Yes, on top of everything else! Sleeping in a car for 3 nights, going, going, going, head cold - and now I have the opportunity to sit in a theater - in the dark - with 3D glasses on. Well, "Up" was a great movie, but there were definitely some slow parts and here's the kicker. There was a point where the ENTIRE theater was quiet, not even talking on the movie and all of a sudden, I hear SNORING!!!!!! And the worse part, it was ME!!!!!! I woke myself up snoring during a cartoon! Does life get any more sad than that??? Sam just looked at me and we started laughing, I dared not look at the lady on the other side of me - Sam said she had been staring at me for a few minutes before. Embarrassing!! So anyway, after the movie, I asked the boys if they heard that annoying person snoring during the movie - they said No - Whew... I told them it was me - They had a laugh. At my expense. But oh well, what are you going to do? :)
Then we head out to meet our weekend guests and took them home and visited for a while. I think we got to bed by midnight - maybe. We had a nice breakfast on Saturday morning, and a drive, and a picnic and headed off to the final game of the boy's baseball Tourney. They ended up with 4th out of 8 for the State Finals! Yay for them! This is the first time they even made it to State, so I'd say they did a pretty darn good job! Then we all headed over to Katie's in-laws for a Salmon and Prawn dinner - some real seafood! Yuummmmmyyyy!!!! Got home late again and then Judah and some of his friends came over to celebrate his birthday again with some yummy cake - thanks to Bridget and Tiffany for the delicious Monkey bread - I just about put myself over the top! :)
Sunday dawned bright and clear - another beautiful day in the sunny Tundra! We had a great day - went to church, then out to lunch with Eric and Kat and then they headed out to start their long journey back to Alaska - it was so much fun having them - I wish they lived closer! But it was just so much fun having them! I hope they enjoyed it as much as us!
We started our Church V=ball league on Sunday night. We have lots of great players! I sat out because we were rotating so many in and it's more fun the more you get to play. But we won all three games! Hopefully that will put us in the top bracket! Usually what happens is they determine who goes in the lower bracket and top bracket based on the first week... But we usually have VBS so most of our people are gone for the first game and we usually loose, therefore getting down into the lower bracket. But we'll see. Charity has two volleyball teams! And that is fun, especially when we get to play each other! We are getting quite a collection of trophies piled up in Sam's office, so if anyone has a good idea of what to do with them, we are willing to take ideas!
Anyway, other than that, we are getting back into the routine of things. Now that June is here, Sam is getting ready for his Boundary Waters trip which will be so much fun. I'm bummed that I'm not going to get to go this year, but the little monkey will be worth it! Seems like he's a morning guy, no jumping around last night, none that Sam could feel anyway.
So anyway, that's about all going on right now. I'll have more news regarding my mom tomorrow. Her appointment is at 2:30 EST today if you would pray for her, we'd all surely appreciate it!
Well, hope you are planning something fun and exciting to do this summer - let me know what your summer plans are! I'd sure like to know!
Loving life in the Tundra and getting rested up for the next adventure!
Love, Sarah
First of all, we started out taking 30 kids up to Lake Metigoshe! It's always a fun trip because it's pretty relaxing. We take 6 canoes and we have a boat, we set up camp for our tents and food and just hang out. The kids are pretty excited to go fishing or canoeing, or just hang out! We make them take a shower on Wednesday and we take at least one trip into town for ice cream during the week! Does life seriously get any better than that????
The first day we got there was pretty cold and rainy. Well, drizzly. But we got everything set up. I was lamenting on the fact that I didn't bring more clothes! In fact, WHAT WAS I THINKING?! Oh yeah, I'm pregnant and can't fit into most of my clothes, that's right. Anyway, I survived. We brought an air mattress, I shared a tent with two other people that got settled onto the air mattress first because I wanted to be close to the door - I knew I'd have to make at least one trip out in the night, if you know what I mean! Well, by the time I got settled, I had a good 12 inches - which worked because I have to sleep on my side anyway, then my hip started throbbing and one of my bed mates started curling up as she slept, which gave me about 10 or less inches! So as I turned over, I fell off the edge of the mattress... Now I was stuck on the flat ground pinned between the door and an air mattress. And it was COLD - I mean, like Burrrrrr - cold!!!! So I thought to myself - "Self, what the heck are you doing here? Get up - the van has got to be more comfortable than this." So I was smart and listened to myself and got up and hiked up to the van to sleep the sleep of kings and queens on the last seat of a 15 passenger van...for the next 2 nights as well! It was like having a room to myself!
The weather kept getting warmer and warmer and so that made it really nice! Since we had such a large group, we had to divide them in half for our canoe trek into Canada. That was pretty nice, except paddling against the wind with 4th-6th graders definitely provides some challenge! It was really fun though - canoeing is definitely one my most favorite things in the world!
Well, we got back around 3pm on Thursday but by the time we got everything put away, including stuff and kids, we got home around 5pm. And like I said earlier, it was Judah's birthday! So Happy Birthday Judah! We had volleyball, pizza and friends to celebrate his big day! And that went to late. I was definitely wearing thin!
Oh, did I mention that I caught a head cold on the trip up to Metigoshe? I probably forgot that part! Still trying to get over it! So my energy was doubly low.
Then on Friday, we hung out with Katie and Mike who were in from Washington for the week and went rummage sale-ing. Then we went out on Mike's boat fishing/boating - it was a beautiful day! Then we needed to make it back in time for the boy's State Baseball Tourney Game #2 - not too much to say there, it was kind of a hard game and the boy's first loss of the season! That was really too bad! But then Judah and Charlie wanted to head out to the movie "Up" - the new Pixar movie - we are all pretty crazy about Pixar movies! Anyway, this was our only opportunity to see it with the boys for the next 2 weeks or so - we went and the theater was packed with all kinds of kids! In fact, we couldn't even find 4 seats together. So the boys went higher and Sam and I sat in the middle of some kids.
The continuation of this story makes it into the "Top 3 Most Embarrassing Moments" of my life. The sad thing is that 2 of them now happened in a movie theater! Anyway, did you catch the part where I was exhausted and moving like one more step was comparable to climbing Mt. Everest? Just in case you didn't catch that part, I just thought I'd make it a little clearer! Also, we needed to rush out of the movie theater because we were expecting weekend guests. Yes, on top of everything else! Sleeping in a car for 3 nights, going, going, going, head cold - and now I have the opportunity to sit in a theater - in the dark - with 3D glasses on. Well, "Up" was a great movie, but there were definitely some slow parts and here's the kicker. There was a point where the ENTIRE theater was quiet, not even talking on the movie and all of a sudden, I hear SNORING!!!!!! And the worse part, it was ME!!!!!! I woke myself up snoring during a cartoon! Does life get any more sad than that??? Sam just looked at me and we started laughing, I dared not look at the lady on the other side of me - Sam said she had been staring at me for a few minutes before. Embarrassing!! So anyway, after the movie, I asked the boys if they heard that annoying person snoring during the movie - they said No - Whew... I told them it was me - They had a laugh. At my expense. But oh well, what are you going to do? :)
Then we head out to meet our weekend guests and took them home and visited for a while. I think we got to bed by midnight - maybe. We had a nice breakfast on Saturday morning, and a drive, and a picnic and headed off to the final game of the boy's baseball Tourney. They ended up with 4th out of 8 for the State Finals! Yay for them! This is the first time they even made it to State, so I'd say they did a pretty darn good job! Then we all headed over to Katie's in-laws for a Salmon and Prawn dinner - some real seafood! Yuummmmmyyyy!!!! Got home late again and then Judah and some of his friends came over to celebrate his birthday again with some yummy cake - thanks to Bridget and Tiffany for the delicious Monkey bread - I just about put myself over the top! :)
Sunday dawned bright and clear - another beautiful day in the sunny Tundra! We had a great day - went to church, then out to lunch with Eric and Kat and then they headed out to start their long journey back to Alaska - it was so much fun having them - I wish they lived closer! But it was just so much fun having them! I hope they enjoyed it as much as us!
We started our Church V=ball league on Sunday night. We have lots of great players! I sat out because we were rotating so many in and it's more fun the more you get to play. But we won all three games! Hopefully that will put us in the top bracket! Usually what happens is they determine who goes in the lower bracket and top bracket based on the first week... But we usually have VBS so most of our people are gone for the first game and we usually loose, therefore getting down into the lower bracket. But we'll see. Charity has two volleyball teams! And that is fun, especially when we get to play each other! We are getting quite a collection of trophies piled up in Sam's office, so if anyone has a good idea of what to do with them, we are willing to take ideas!
Anyway, other than that, we are getting back into the routine of things. Now that June is here, Sam is getting ready for his Boundary Waters trip which will be so much fun. I'm bummed that I'm not going to get to go this year, but the little monkey will be worth it! Seems like he's a morning guy, no jumping around last night, none that Sam could feel anyway.
So anyway, that's about all going on right now. I'll have more news regarding my mom tomorrow. Her appointment is at 2:30 EST today if you would pray for her, we'd all surely appreciate it!
Well, hope you are planning something fun and exciting to do this summer - let me know what your summer plans are! I'd sure like to know!
Loving life in the Tundra and getting rested up for the next adventure!
Love, Sarah
Monday, June 1, 2009
Hey there!
Friends and Family!
Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments over the last week! I really appreciate them! Let's me know you are still out there despite my being away! I'll definitely fill you in on the last week, but for now, a quick overview!
We left Monday morning with 30 4th-6th graders to the Turtle Mountains up near the Canadian border for a 4 day camping trip! Lots of fun, but more details to come later.
Then we got back late Thursday for Judah's 18th birthday! Ahh, I just can't believe he's 18 already!!!
Then we had some friends come in on Friday. They are missionaries from Alaska - Eric and Kat and Jude Rozeboom! It was such a great weekend, but it's time to buckle down and get caught up on everyday life - thankfully, our house is semi clean from getting ready for those guys! I can focus on laundry and bills! :)
Let's see - an update on my mom - Well, she sees an Oncologist tomorrow and then we'll know better what the options are, so keep in touch and I'll let you know. If any of you are so compelled to send her a message - she's kind of bad with the computer, but her email is forresters1967@hotmail.com and their home phone # is 804-472-3694. Address: Janis Forrester, 53 Weatherall Drive, Montross, VA 22520. I know some of you wanted to drop her messages, I know she'd appreciate it, thanks!
Other than that, I think we're just about up to 23 weeks tomorrow and let me tell you this funny story in closing and then I need to head out and get started on that mound of laundry. Anyway, I've been feeling this little monkey jumping around and I just can't wait for Sam to be able to feel him too! Well, today, I was just sitting here and work and he was kicking up a storm - or something, but then I pushed down on my belly and sure enough, I felt a good hard kick! I got so excited that I wanted to tell Sam, I was about to pick up the phone to call him, when the phone rang here at work, and instead of my greeting "American Capital Investments, This is Sarah", I just said, "Hello?" Oops! Luckily it was Sambo calling me! Ha!!! Anyway, hopefully he'll be just as active this afternoon and Sam will be able to feel his little guy moving all around! I just thought I'd share. Well, I've been off the computer for so long, I've got to post this and go look at my ultrasound pictures again, it's been ages since I've seen my baby, so now, if you'll excuse me - I'll catch you up later!
Exciting moments in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments over the last week! I really appreciate them! Let's me know you are still out there despite my being away! I'll definitely fill you in on the last week, but for now, a quick overview!
We left Monday morning with 30 4th-6th graders to the Turtle Mountains up near the Canadian border for a 4 day camping trip! Lots of fun, but more details to come later.
Then we got back late Thursday for Judah's 18th birthday! Ahh, I just can't believe he's 18 already!!!
Then we had some friends come in on Friday. They are missionaries from Alaska - Eric and Kat and Jude Rozeboom! It was such a great weekend, but it's time to buckle down and get caught up on everyday life - thankfully, our house is semi clean from getting ready for those guys! I can focus on laundry and bills! :)
Let's see - an update on my mom - Well, she sees an Oncologist tomorrow and then we'll know better what the options are, so keep in touch and I'll let you know. If any of you are so compelled to send her a message - she's kind of bad with the computer, but her email is forresters1967@hotmail.com and their home phone # is 804-472-3694. Address: Janis Forrester, 53 Weatherall Drive, Montross, VA 22520. I know some of you wanted to drop her messages, I know she'd appreciate it, thanks!
Other than that, I think we're just about up to 23 weeks tomorrow and let me tell you this funny story in closing and then I need to head out and get started on that mound of laundry. Anyway, I've been feeling this little monkey jumping around and I just can't wait for Sam to be able to feel him too! Well, today, I was just sitting here and work and he was kicking up a storm - or something, but then I pushed down on my belly and sure enough, I felt a good hard kick! I got so excited that I wanted to tell Sam, I was about to pick up the phone to call him, when the phone rang here at work, and instead of my greeting "American Capital Investments, This is Sarah", I just said, "Hello?" Oops! Luckily it was Sambo calling me! Ha!!! Anyway, hopefully he'll be just as active this afternoon and Sam will be able to feel his little guy moving all around! I just thought I'd share. Well, I've been off the computer for so long, I've got to post this and go look at my ultrasound pictures again, it's been ages since I've seen my baby, so now, if you'll excuse me - I'll catch you up later!
Exciting moments in the Tundra,
Love, Sarah
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